If it is not too absurd of a thing to say about a team that just completed an 18-64 season, that has not made the playoffs for four seasons, that has not made it beyond the first round for nine years, and that has not been in contention for an NBA Championship since just before the Earth cooled – the Washington Wizards have been making a series of good moves over the past few months.
Today, for example, the Wizards have completed a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder. In exchange only for two-year veteran wing Colby Jones – whom they had acquired merely as trade filler in February, rather than someone they had scouted for themselves – the Wizards will receive Colby’s namesake Dillon Jones from the Thunder, along with a future second-round pick, according to a report by ESPN’s Shams Charania.
This is how a shrewd team at the bottom of the pile works the margins. And this, simply, is not something that the Wizards have previously been known for.
Uncharacteristic Opportunism
The Thunder only moved Dillon Jones through the necessity of a roster spot crunch. Jones was a first-round pick just last season, and while his opportunities were understandably limited among the Thunder’s title-winning season, the Thunder gave up five second-round picks just to acquire his draft rights last summer from the New York Knicks. They would have liked to yield a return on that investment, but time was against them.
Even for a team as awash with draft capital as the Thunder – who can afford to incinerate picks in this way – that initial trade package was still a huge endorsement of Dillon’s upside. Now, the Wizards will get that upside for free.
The Wizards were opportunistic in the market, buying low when other teams were forced to sell. It was the kind of trade that the Thunder used to make when they were on the way up, and it comes with no drawbacks. The addition of the extra second – which, like all draft picks, will be worth having – also speaks to solid value extraction; the Thunder might have seconds to burn, but the Wizards could use them.
In conjunction, therefore, the Wizards therefore essentially picked up two pieces for the future for the cost of nothing at all. Indeed, with Colby Jones being waived by the Thunder immediately upon the trade’s completion, they could even bring him back if they wanted.
Dillon Jones will now join a wing rotation also featuring Kyshawn George, whom the Wizards acquired at the 2024 NBA Draft in exchange, fittingly, for the rights to Dillon Jones and two future second-round picks. Receiving two seconds and a first to give away a player, only to then receive an extra second to take him back twelve months later, is – quite literally – all profit.
The New Veteran Wizards Core
Due to the financial particulars requiring it to be delayed until July 6, the Wizards’ biggest offseason move remains pending at this moment. When that day comes, though, they will be completing a trade with the New Orleans Pelicans in which they will be sending out Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey and the draft rights to Micah Peavy (the #40 pick in this week’s NBA Draft) in exchange for C.J. McCollum, Kelly Olynyk and a future second-round pick.
Once that deal is complete, the Wizards will have a veteran core of McCollum, Olynyk, Marcus Smart and Khris Middleton. The four are respected and successful NBA veterans, who will be able to raise the floor of the 18-win Wizards while providing veteran stability and mentorship for the team’s younger prospects. And all four also have one other important characteristic in common – they all have contracts that will expire next summer.
In tandem, then, the Wizards have created a veteran core that will benefit the development of the youngsters, added more youngsters, added more draft capital, and created almost a full salary cap’s worth of payroll relief All for the loss of Poole’s contract and Colby Jones.
Wizards Still Need More Talent
This asset accumulation and floor-raising balancing act, of course, only works as a strategy if the anointed core become good enough to get somewhere. On that front, early indicates are mixed.
To be sure, there are some promising signs. Alexandre Sarr and Bub Carrington were both good enough in fits and starts this past season to win spots on the All-NBA Rookie Teams, and this year’s first-round pick Tre Johnson comes with a high ceiling of his own.
Alongside them, Bilal Coulibaly has plenty of tools to work with as a modern-day NBA forward with range, and Corey Kispert has become a coveted shooter and scorer. George, too, has shown some good three-and-D potential, if the jumper comes along, and Dillon Jones has strong two-way potential that he may yet demonstrate in the greater opportunities he will no doubt receive in Washington.
It is, however, still a group of young players that is a far cry from being the core of an NBA title contender. Improving the floor is not important until there is a high ceiling to start reaching for. This is not the time to rest on laurels.
Nevertheless, even if they do not have the core to kick on any time soon in a manner similar to the Houston Rockets of the past couple of seasons, the Wizards are nonetheless demonstrating better team-building instincts. They are not losing trades, they are operating with a clear strategy, they are identifying talents both youthful and veteran who add to the team, they are adding draft capital, and they are doing so with a cast of reputable characters.
Apart from the minor snafu of the win-loss column, the Washington Wizards of these past 18 months are not the Washington Wizards of yore. Things are going well. Charge your glasses.
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